WCSX Classic Cuts : Stairway to Heaven
WCSX Classic Cuts Led Zeppelin: “Stairway to Heaven” The Hook: Hearing Jimmy Page’s guitar intro to “Stairway…” made John Paul Jones reach for his recorder — not his tape recorder,…
16th September 1970: British rock band Led Zeppelin collect their geode awards after being voted top British group in the Melody Maker Pop Poll in London. From left to right, they are Jimmy Page, Robert Plant (who also won the Best British Singer award), and John Bonham. (Photo by Roger Jackson/Central Press/Getty Images)
Roger Jackson/Central Press/Getty ImagesWCSX Classic Cuts
Led Zeppelin: "Stairway to Heaven"
The Hook: Hearing Jimmy Page's guitar intro to "Stairway..." made John Paul Jones reach for his recorder -- not his tape recorder, but the instrument millions of schoolkids play.
Album: Led Zeppelin IV
Year: 1971
Writers: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
Stats: Never released as a single, it was, however, the most requested song on FM radio throughout the 1970s.
Background: Led Zeppelin are currently involved in a lawsuit about whether they lifted the intro to "Stairway to Heaven" from an instrumental by the band Spirit. In a 1990's interview, John Paul Jones described how he and Jimmy Page created that intro using guitar and a wind instrument that millions of kids learn to play in school.
Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones on how he and Jimmy Page came up with the intro to “Stairway to Heaven.” OC:…that intro. :16
“He started playing that on the guitar. We were just sitting around the fireside and I picked up a bass recorder and just ran the line down. And then having kind of set the atmosphere there, I then wrote a multi-track recorder arrangement for that intro.”
